


First Meeting

by Shiori_Makiba



Series: War and Peace [3]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassins & Hitmen, Brotherly Bonding, Bullying, Dying Will Flames, First Meetings, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Hacking, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Name-Calling, Observations, Protective Older Brothers, Reasonable Authority Figures, Sawada Iemitsu Being an Idiot, Sawada Iemitsu's A+ Parenting, Siblings, Swearing, Timoteo Vongola's A+ Parenting, Unreasonable Authority Figures, actions have consequences
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2019-10-14 16:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17512103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiori_Makiba/pseuds/Shiori_Makiba
Summary: Xanxus has discovered that he has a little brother. And that he probably should at least lay eyes on the kid before he writes him off as useless Iemitsu spawn.





	1. Initial Planning

**Author's Note:**

> I have drawn some inspiration from Sefiru's Hidden Sky verse for this story. Hopefully they don't mind.
> 
> Meant to have this out sooner but RL interrupted the writing process.

Xanxus's first impulse was to ignore the fact that Iemitsu Sawada was his father.

Because, for the most part, it didn't change anything. He was **still** furious with Timoteo. He **still** couldn't follow Timoteo's sons. One was dead, the second's flames were too weak, and third was an asshole. He **still** thought Iemitsu was a moron who would destroy Vongola out of sheer lazy stupidity.

As far as Xanxus was concerned, only three things had change. First, he now knew that the Sky Ring wouldn't reject him as Decimo purely based on his lack of blood relationship to Giotto. Second, that he had – technically – a step-mother he had never met. Thirdly, he now had a younger half-brother that he had also never met.

It was the younger brother that making him hesitate to ignore what he had learned. His Intuition didn't twitch at the idea of a coup or rejecting Sawada as anything other than a sperm donor. But it tingled at ignoring the existence of his step-mother and howled at the idea of ignoring his half-brother. He wasn't sure why.

Maybe he was just curious? He had never really had a brother. One could argue that Timoteo's sons, despite the adoption being unofficial and actually his distant cousins, were his brothers. Xanxus was willing to concede that point in the case of Enrico and Federico who had always treated him like he was their brother. He wasn't as close to either as they were to each other but he was thirteen and ten years younger than them. Massimo was only five years older than Xanxus but he never treated him as a brother. Massimo had always had as little to do with the “little bastard” as he could get away with. Which was a lot and often. Not that Xanxus was **complaining** about this. He didn't want to spend any more time than necessary in the presence of that arrogant prick either. But it was another area of Massimo's behavior and attitude that Timoteo turned a blind eye toward. If they had a fight, it was always, somehow, the fault of Xanxus.

But Tuna-fish (which better not be the brat's real name) was his actual, no bullshit brother. A younger brother, something that Xanxus could definitely say that he never had before under any circumstances. Maybe he should at least do some research, maybe at least lay eyes on the brat before rejecting him as family?

His Intuition liked that plan. And not being in the habit of ignoring his Intuition, Xanxus stalked out of his office. He had a Mist to find. And then appointment at the range for a therapeutic session of blowing shit up.

***  
Step One in the plan was simply research.

Xanxus could hardly just fly over to Japan, pick a random city, and start asking everyone if they knew a brat named Tuna-fish with a braying jackass for a father. Japan wasn't that large of a country geographically speaking but it's population size was nothing to sneeze at. That method would take forever to accomplish his goal, if it ever did. And that method would very quickly capture the attention of Timoteo and Sawada. Which he didn't want. Neither of the older men but especially Sawada (who had never liked Xanxus very much) would be pleased by his sudden interest in Sawada's civilian wife and kid. The fact that he had never shown any interest in them before now would be a red flag even Sawada wasn't stupid enough to ignore.

If they found out, they would want to know **why**. And Xanxus had no intention of letting them know the **why** anytime soon. See how they liked being kept in the dark about something important that directly involved them.

So this research needed to be done discreetly.

Step Two would be scouting out the situation. Mostly to assess what the security situation was. Some of the security protocols would turn during research but Xanxus was an experienced enough assassin to know that people don't always write down their entire security arrangement and left it where anyone with the right know-how could find it. And those security measures that aren't written down anywhere can be the most dangerous. Especially to the unwary.

And again this task would require discretion to avoid the attentions of meddling old men.

Step Three was arranging for himself and at least one Guardian, possibly two, to travel wherever in Japan the brat lived. Which also needed to be done discreetly and with his own money to avoid attention. No problem money-wise. Xanxus might be young but he was still Varia Fucking Quality. His services did not come cheap.

Neither did Mammon's. As their Sky, Xanxus got a discount on said services but they still weren't cheap any measure of means. But he wanted the best and he wanted someone he could trust. Mammon fit that bill on both accounts.

Now he just needed to wait and see what the Mist uncovered.

TO BE CONTINUED. . . .


	2. Initial Observations

Mammon frowned. They were observing, as they had been for the last several days, one Tsunayoshi Sawada. The son of the Young Lion . . . . and half-brother of their Sky.

Something was . . . off.

Their mission had started off exactly as they had been expecting it. They had what they already knew – that Sawada had a civilian wife and child somewhere in Japan – and expanded outward via contacts, hacking of computer databases, and gain access to paper files. Most of the first type in Italy had very little to say about Nanami “Nana” Sawada née Watanabe and Tsunayoshi Sawada. Mostly because very few of them even knew the pair existed (and Mammon was not going to be the one to enlighten them) or they only knew what Mammon already knew. International wasn't much better for the exact same reasons. Japan was slightly better but some of their usual contacts seemed oddly reluctant to speak about the Sawada family.

There were also some contacts that Mammon couldn't use at all. Some because Xanxus would not be happy if Vongola enemies learned of his half-brother's existence. Others because of need to keep Sawada and Nono out of this matter. Being able to pick Reborn's brain and that of his information network would have been lovely but Reborn wouldn't believe that story Mammon was giving their other contacts. That this was simple information gathering because Mammon was an information broker and that's what they did. He would **know** there was more to it and might alert Nono and Sawada.

The databases had yielded more and better information. Some of them more easily the others. The first hint that something was . . . odd.

The CEDEF computers were, of course, protected by robust computer security and encryption software. Through some of the most sensitive data wasn't located on any computer in the CEDEF but on hand-written paper files in a locked cabinet in Lal Mirch's office. Accessing those had been very pleasing challenge. Difficult enough to require actual effort of their part but not insurmountable.

The computers of the school system, public statistical databases, and several private businesses in Namimori had shockingly robust computer and network security. Almost as good or better than the CEDEF in some instances. Through some of that security had the clear fingerprints of the CEDEF protecting it – Mammon sensed Lal Mirch's fine hand in that.

But Mammon was the best for a reason. It took more effort and time than they had been expecting but they got access in the end.

Seeing some of the names listed as Namimori residents cleared up why they had such robust security. Now Mammon had heard of Namimori before as a place of retirement for older mafia and freelance assassins. It was under Vongola protection but still generally considered neutral territory, not unlike Mafia Land. That being said, not everyone would respect that neutral or would be willing to risk Vongola's wrath to take out some of these names.

For example, Tsuyoshi Yamamoto. The Demon of the Crimson Rain might be retired. Many of his enemies might be dead. But not all of them. And it wasn't just Yamamoto's neck on the line if his enemies knew where he lived. The assassin himself might still be a hard target to eliminate but his six-year-old son wasn't.

The school records of Tsunayoshi Sawada held something that wasn't so easily explained away. Preschool and half of kindergarten there was nothing unusual. Everything they found indicated that Tsunayoshi was a bright child, easily capable of keeping up with his peers in learning. A little shy but cheerful enough – the teachers noted that he was got along well with his classmates and most seem to view him kindly enough.

Then all of that abruptly changed.

The new term started and Tsunayoshi had difficulty keeping up his peers, rapidly falling behind on his schoolwork. Teachers reported in their notes that, in contrast to the attentive pupil of before, Tsunayoshi barely seemed to be able to focus. This change showed in his grades. They went from well above average at the beginning to the term to near failing by the end of it.

His academic performance wasn't the only change. He was unusually clumsy. To the degree that if anyone asked and Mammon cared to answer, they would have recommended taking the child to a doctor. But that wasn't the only concerning thing. Mammon had gotten the impression that while he wasn't the most popular student in his class, Tsunayoshi had been well liked. Not anymore. By the end of the school, almost all of his class disliked him in some fashion. Most left it at name calling – Dame Tsuna, _No Good_ Tsuna. But some were physically bullying him. And it wasn't not just his classmates.

A fact that the school and his teachers seemed either oblivious to or refused to sanction. They didn't even write it into Tsunayoshi's file aside from the noting that he was “disruptive.” Mammon had to pierce together the bullying from other sources, including their own eyes once they arrived in Namimori.

That afternoon spent on the playground disguised as a child had been aggravating but had also given Mammon a lot of information. The bullying but also the curious way that none of the children seem to be able to ignore Tsunayoshi if he was around. Tsunayoshi did his six-year-old best to unnoticeable but his best wasn't good enough.

It was almost like Sky Attraction gone wrong.

But Tsunayoshi didn't seem to have any Flames. At least none that Mammon could sense. His father and brother were Skies but that was no guarantee that **Tsunayoshi** would manifest as a Sky.

Through there was an unknown Sky in Namimori. They had seen and felt the Flames wreathing several trees in the area. They were mere wisps. Barely enough to tell one that there was a Sky in the area. No hint of how strong the Sky was but there was taste of said Flames' purity. That said taste very pure and Skies with very pure Flames were seldom weak. It was nowhere near enough information to identity the Sky but Mammon found it curious that all of the wisps were in walking distance of the Sawada residence, often in places that Tsunayoshi or his mother frequented.

Odd considering the boys' aforementioned lack of apparent Flames (and he was too young to be enough control over them to hide it from them) and the equal lack of Flames from the mother.

Mammon was still going to inform Xanxus. Vague report or not, he would want to know there was an unknown, potentially powerful, Sky in the area before he got here. Especially there seemed to be something odd happening with the boy and said Sky might have something to do with it.

The final odd thing, and Xanxus really wasn't going to like it, was the lack of physical security. Given the amount of effort that had gone into protecting the information about Tsunayoshi and Nana, Mammon had expected to see a similar level protecting them physically. But there wasn't. Mammon had not seen one bodyguard, any CEDEF agent, or anything else to indicate that someone was watching over the wife and child, ready to intercept and deal with any assassins or kidnappers who found them.

There wasn't even a **basic** security alarm system on the house.

It didn't make **any** sense. Tsunayoshi might be a civilian with no active Flames and with several people between him and the position of Decimo but he was a still a Vongola heir. He still had Primo's blood in his veins. Which would be immediately obvious to anyone who had ever seen a portrait of Giotto Vongola. Considering that there was a huge one of him and his Guardians in the ballroom where Nono often held events with both Alliance and non-Alliance Famiglia would be a lot of mafia.

(Tsunayoshi wasn't the only one. Mammon had **not** missed the clones with different hair colors of Ugetsu, Knuckles, and Alaude. Another thing to alert the Boss to.)

Tsunayoshi was also the only known child of a high-ranking Vongola family member. Nana was said member's wife. Vongola had enemies. Sawada had enemies. **Any** of which would be more than willing to kidnap or kill Tsunayoshi or Nana.

So why didn't they have bodyguards or any other form of security detail?

TO BE CONTINUED . . .


	3. Frustration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It had been very frustrating week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay. The Muse proved elusive and Real Life did not help. Thank you for your patience and for all the feedback and kudos.

It had been a very frustrating day.

First off, there was the paperwork. One thing everyone always failed to mention about being a Boss was how much paperwork there was. It was, quite frankly, utterly insane how much paperwork there was. Xanxus was sure that there were **government** agencies that had to wade through less red tape than he did.

He hadn't wanted to believe it, the first time he saw all of it. Surely, he personally did not need to do all of that. Isn't that he had minions in the first place – to do all the bullshit he didn't want to do? Sadly the answer in this case was no. A very loud and very firm **no**. There was some things that had to be handled by the Varia Boss and only the Varia Boss. Squalo as his Second could only do some of this work and only if Xanxus was unable. Like he was in a coma. Or dead.

And if the amount of paperwork in and of itself wasn't enough to give him a headache, there was the fact that it all had to be filled out exactly correct. If it wasn't, he had to re-do it. Attempts to terrify the clerks into accepting it as is had fallen flat. No because the clerks in question weren't terrified of him. Because they were. But because Nono started having his paperwork dealt with by people he couldn't terrify. Like Nono himself. Or Lal Mirch. Or a couple of memorable occasions Reborn.

The World's Greatest Hitman had made it **very** clear that any work turned into **him** for review had **better** meet with the not-a-baby's exacting and rigid standards. **Or else**. In a rare moment of abject stupidity and over Dino's repeated warnings, Xanxus had decided to see what that _or else_ entailed.

Xanxus suppressed a shudder. Never again. Made him a little more sympathetic toward Dino. He had thought all of the Cavallone's complaints about Reborn's sadism was just Dino being a whiny little bitch. Nope. Maybe Dino wasn't such a wuss after all. One had to be tough to survive **that** all of the time.

In addition to his own mountain of paperwork, Xanxus had to make sure all of his minions were doing theirs and doing theirs correctly. Most of his Guardians were pretty good at not only getting their own paperwork done but making sure their divisions to do so as well. All without any input from him. The exception was Belphegor and the Storm Division. And that was because his Storm was a kid and hadn't been with the organization long enough to have learn all of the red-tape bullshit yet. Xanxus was confident that he would have it down pat soon – Belphegor might be **insane** but he wasn't stupid.

Of course, the ever-present paperwork wasn't the only thing trying his nerves today. There had also been the meeting. A meeting with Timoteo and Sawada, both of whom Xanxus had been avoiding ever since he found about his paternity. Even without that knowledge, that meeting would have been an endurance test for his patience.

First was that Sawada was being even more of braying jackass than usual. Probably because Lal Mirch wasn't there to kick him in the shins every time he got on her nerves. No reason was given for the Cloudy Rain's absence but Xanxus was assuming that she was either getting some actual work done while she wasn't having to babysit the man-child . . . or she was fixing some fuck-up of Sawada's. Or both.

Second, Timoteo was being indecisive. He refused to name a heir. He didn't seem interested in finding Enrico's killers – and it wasn't like it wasn't obvious that the man had been murdered! He wasn't increasing the security around his two surviving sons, not to mention his grandchildren! Xanxus didn't care if Massimo died. He might even celebrate. But he didn't want anything to happen to Federico or the kids who called him Zio Xanxus. At this rate, something would and that something going to be awful.

And that pissed him off. He was doing what he could to protect the man who was all but his brother and the kids but there was only so much he could do. It would be so much easier to protect Federico, Maria (the Rain niece), and Giovanni (the Storm nephew) if Timoteo and the rest of Vongola would God-damn **help** him do it.

But Timoteo was taking Sawada's word that Enrico's murder was just an isolated incident. Xanxus didn't think it was. He had no proof. All he had was his Intuition and his gut, both of which were screaming _danger, this isn't over yet_.

Xanxus was certain that someone wanted the Tenth Generation gone before they could even begin. That someone wanted Federico dead, Massimo dead, Maria dead, Giovanni dead, him dead. Sawada dead too, if they really wanted to make a clean sweep of it. He prayed that whoever was gunning for his Famiglia and his family didn't know about his little half-brother. He didn't know the kid and might decide to have nothing to do with him but that didn't meant the civilian kid deserved to die for something he had nothing do with. It was hardly his fault that he just happened to share a blood-relationship to Vongola and through Xanxus, the Varia.

He had spent half of the meeting trying to get Timoteo to see the danger but the man ignored him, dismissed his Intuition as mere paranoia. If it wouldn't have gotten him even further dismissed a child throwing a tantrum, Xanxus would have stormed out of the meeting right then and there.

The rest of the meeting was inconsequential, nothing of note was spoken. Xanxus got out of the main house as fast he could and headed straight for the range. He still had a ton of work he needed to finish but he was itching for the need to fight, to destroy things, to do something to vent his rage and frustration. While it was tempting to burn all of his paperwork, it always regenerated. And in large numbers.

His Guardians must have picked up on his mood through the bonds because after an hour of shooting his gun and blowing shit up, Squalo had shown up to get his ass kicked. Okay, it was more a mutual ass-kicking because it wasn't as if his Rain Guardian couldn't hold his own in a fight.

It was a good fight. It helped cool his rage. So did the fact that his Rain asked him no questions. Just showed up and accepted that Xanxus needed to fight. Lussuria was equally quiet on that front as he healed them afterward, just quietly talking about unimportant things. Small talk like this often annoyed him but today, he just let the familiar voice, the familiar smell of the Infirmary, and the familiar sunny-bright-warm-heal of his Guardian's Flames wash over him and sooth away that last of the prickles. His Sun seemed to sense that he needed this because he kept it up until Xanxus waved him off and headed back for his office.

As he settled back into his office, he spent out a light pulse through his Bonds. Not one that would worry his Guardians or sent them running toward his office, intend on messy destruction of whatever was threatening their Sky, just a little tap to reassure him that they were here and that they were safe. He got the answering echo from everyone except Mammon who still too far out of range to feel or send back a small nudge like that.

Which was the third thing making this week a trial. Mammon and their mission. He wasn't worried about his Guardian. The Mist could take care of themselves. And the Bond ensued he would **know** if they were killed or badly hurt or something like that. Mammon's Flames felt distant but the Bond was intact and strong so they were fine.

The thing that was worrying him, a little, was the mission. Not because Mammon might fail – he snorted at the ridiculousness of that – but because of what the Mist might find out. About what his half-brother was like. He might be prepared to write him off as family if it came to it but there was a part of him that didn't **want** it to come to that. A part that wanted a little brother, that wanted more family. He had his Guardians and they were family. He had Federico, Giovanni, and Maria and they were family. But he was selfish enough to want more.

_It would be nice,_ Xanxus thought. _If my little brother took more after his mother than our father_.

It would be nice to be a big brother. The kind of big brother he always wanted to be. The kind of big brother like Enrico and Federico had been to him, despite the age gap and despite thinking he was their father's bastard.

His musing was interrupted by the familiar cool-fog tingle of Mist Flames brushing up against his Flames. Familiar Mist Flames. Mammon appeared in his office, clenching some files in their tiny hands. Xanxus did a quick survey of his Guardian. The Mist didn't feel hurt but it was good to check. Through checking a Mist for injuries if they didn't feel like sharing them was always a bitch and a half. But it didn't look or feel like Mammon was hurt and trying to hide it.

However, the Mist did have that peculiar stillness they got when they had news that they weren't sure how well he was going to take. The last time Mammon had been that still was when his paternity test came back.

Xanxus squared his shoulders, eyes narrowed, and ordered, “Report.”

To be continued . . .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zio means Uncle in Italian.


	4. Rage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The emotion he was feeling now, however, wasn't anger. It was rage.

Xanxus was an an angry person. He **knew** that. So did everyone else. It was one of his defining character traits as far as most people were concerned. And they weren't exactly wrong about that. He was self aware to know that he had a bad temper attached to a rather short fuse. Where people made their mistake was thinking that he had no control over his temper.

Granted, it wasn't hard to see **why** people thought that. Because he yelled. He threw things. He broke stuff. Sparring with him when he was angry ranged anywhere from a little rougher than usual to downright vicious, depending on just how angry he was. And anyone would with a even hint of Flame awareness could all but taste the anger dancing in his Flames.

But Xanxus was a Boss and a Varia Quality Assassin, neither of which could afford to fly off the handle all the time. Couldn't afford to let every asshole in the world provoke them easily. Especially since he wanted to be a living Boss and Varia Quality Assassin. Being easily goaded was a weakness, one that was very easy to exploit. And **someone** would exploit it sooner or later. He didn't expect to live forever but he did want to live for as long as possible. And Step One for that goal was not being a moron when he could help it.

Because while Xanxus could **usually** sit on his temper when it was the right time or place to unleash his anger, he wasn't perfect. Sometimes it got away from him. While it was sometimes useful to be underestimated, it is still damned annoying to be dismissed as a hot-headed idiot.

The emotion he was feeling now, however, wasn't anger. It was rage. Pure, unadulterated fury. And if people thought he was a ruthless, vicious little bastard when he was angry, they should see him when he was enraged. His fury was an entirely different beast from his anger. Cold, more calculating. Maybe it was, generally speaking, more difficult to spark off his rage than his normal anger. Unless you hit some very specific buttons, it took a lot of bullshit to actually enrage him. Another difference was that his rage lasted longer than his anger. Normal-pissed-off anger was pretty much there, he yelled or threw something, and then it was gone. His rage wasn't like that. It lingered. And it held a grudge.

The reason he was furious was simple. One of his buttons was fucking with who and what he called his own. Clouds weren't the only Flames who got territorial. Skies were just as bad in their own way. The Varia Mansion and its grounds . . . his Guardians . . . Federico and the kids . . . the Varia minions, especially the ones that had proven themselves both loyal and competent . . . they were **his**. His in way that he couldn't really put into words.

 _Except for maybe **mine**_ , he thought. _**My** home. **My** Guardians. **My** brothers. **My** niece. **My** nephew. **My** minions. They are **mine**. And no one gets to hurt what is **mine** and get away with it. No one._

Which was why he was so furious about Enrico's murder. Enrico had been his too and now he was gone. There was an aching hole in his Sky, in his soul, where Enrico's Flames should be. He **hated** it. He hated whoever was responsible for snuffing those Flames out. He hated how much it hurt. He wanted the person who did this to him, to his family, to pay and pay dearly. 

And what hurt just as bad was that he and Federico seemed to be the only ones who cared. **Really** cared that Enrico was gone. That someone had killed him. Not because of what it meant for the succession or anything like that but because Enrico was his brother and he loved him. 

Xanxus had yet to actually meet Tsunayoshi but apparently that wasn't enough to stop his possessive nature from latching onto the boy as one of his and feeling that instinct snarl of rage when he listened Mammon's report. 

He didn't know what was going on with his little brother but it was obvious that **something** had happened to the kid. Tsunayoshi had gone from average kid with decent grades who was well-liked to the clumsy village pariah who was all but failing every subject virtually overnight. That didn't happen. Not for no reason. 

If that reason was medical, it wasn't standard medical. Because as flighty as his step-mother seemed to be, she **did** notice there was something odd happening to her child and had taken him to the doctor. Who had found absolutely nothing with the kid. Which didn't mean the kid didn't have a problem. Just that maybe the doctor hadn't found it. Standard medical tests were only good at catching the more usual problems, the stuff that most people have. Rare or the more unusual diseases or conditions . . . not so much. And unless this doctor was Flame aware (and Mammon could find nothing to indicate he was), anything Flame related would be missed entirely. 

Not this sudden downward spiral had to be Flame related. It could easily be something totally unrelated to Flames. But until he and his Sun Guardian checked, he couldn't be sure that it wasn't Flame related. If you knew what you were doing, you could some very nasty things to someone with Flames. Killing someone wasn't the worst thing you do to someone with Flames. Not by a long shot. 

The only Flame he could rule out entirely was Mist because Mammon would have noticed that. Storm or Lightning Flames could have damaged nerves and other neurological tissues but he placed that toward the bottom of the possible list as most Storms and Lightning didn't have the level of control over their Flames that could be needed to damage just the nerves. Cloud didn't really fit . . . and Clouds were so rare. He had been surprised when Mammon reported finding one in Namimori. His Mist Guardian's report also stated that said baby Cloud didn't seem to bear Tsunayoshi any ill will. Which likely meant that while the Cloud might not like Tsunayoshi, he didn't **dislike** him either. Mafia lore all agreed that if a Cloud didn't like someone, they made that fact very obvious. 

A Rain could make him apathetic about his school-work and other aspects of his life but that didn't quite fit. A Sun with the right knowledge could do all sorts of things that could cause those symptoms. Or someone with both Rain and Sun Flames or something like that . . . through having more one type of Flame was pretty rare. A hostile with Sky Flames had a lot of possibilities at their disposal. . . and Mammon said there was an unknown Sky in Namimori. 

Of course, Xanxus didn't have to looking for a mysterious Sky to find potential Sky culprits. After all, Sawada had paid a visit home not long before Tsunayoshi's sudden change. A visit that Nono had accompanied him on. He found the timing highly suspicious. It **could** be a coincidence but Xanxus wasn't betting on it. 

He needed to go to Namimori. He needed to see the kid with his own eyes. He needed to have Lussuria do a sweep with his Flames to see if his suspicions had any merit. And in all honesty, he was really hoping that he was wrong about Nono and Sawada doing something. Because any other Flame type, provided said Element wasn't stronger than his Sun Guardian, Lussuria could probably fix what had been broken. But if it was Sky Flames . . . Lussuria probably wouldn't be able to do a damn thing to fix the problem. 

According to the archives, there were things that Sky Flames could do that to an Element, even another Sky. Xanxus hadn't been paying all that much attention when he looked at those records so his memory of the details was sketchy. One thing he did remember was that many of those things could only be undone by a Sky and that undoing required very fine control over one's Flames. It had sounded delicate and delicate wasn't one of Xanxus's best things. 

Of course, worrying about that now was borrowing trouble. After all, he didn't know that Nono and Sawada had something to Tsunayoshi. He didn't know that **anyone** had something to his brother. He just suspected it. Suspicion was not proof. They could be innocence. 

Besides, there were plenty that they had done for him to be furious about. Or rather, what they **hadn't** done. He hadn't believed his own ears when Mammon told him that his brother and step-mother had no security. None. No alarms, no guards, no nothing. Not a single damn thing standing between them and certain death if anyone found them. 

And someone **could** find them. They were hidden but haphazardly. By Mammon's estimation, it would only take someone of moderate talent to find his brother and step-mother if anyone decided to look. Probably the only reason no one had was because, as much as Sawada like to brag about his beautiful wife and adorable son, he was at least smart enough to restrict that bragging to the Famiglia. But as Mammon pointed out, it would only take one careless conversation. Or one double-agent for exactly the wrong people to learn about Tsunayoshi. 

And that pissed Xanxus off. Even if Tsunayoshi wasn't his half-brother, this would still piss him off. Because the kid was still a Vongola heir. He was still Primo's bloodline. Tsunayoshi might not be a Sky himself but his blood carried the potential for it. And there were plenty of Famiglia would pay very handsomely for the chance to add that blood to their own gene pool and possibly get their very own Sky with the famed Vongola Hyper-Intuition. 

Well, not on his watch. His brother and step-mother were getting proper security and they were getting right now. And since there had been some extraordinary fuck-ups already, Xanxus needed to handle this himself. He couldn't make them safe – that was impossible, given who they were – but he could make them **safer** than they were right now. 

Xanxus had a lot of work to get done. He needed to pack, make arrangements for flights and a hotel, all without alerting Nono and Sawada where he was going. He also needed to tell his other Guardians about Tsunayoshi. 

They were aware something was going on. His Guardians weren't stupid. They had doubtless felt the rage boiling through his Flames and down the bonds into their own Flames. And his Guardians did deserved to know what had been making their Sky so . . . temperamental . . . lately. Besides his bond with Squalo was thrumming with the kind of concern and impatient determination that signaled that his Rain had had enough of vague excuses and was going to find out what was wrong with his Sky. Whether Xanxus liked it or not. 

The bonds to the others sparked with the same combination of concern, determination, and anger toward whatever had upset their Sky this badly. If Squalo couldn't get it out of him, one of them would. Deciding to bow to the inevitable, Xanxus pressed the intercom buttons and told his Guardians to come to his office immediately. They had something to discuss. 

_To be continued . . . ._


End file.
